Fiji`s media muzzling `worrying`

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A DEEPLY shaken Tim Costello, World Vision Australia`s boss, has arrived back from cyclone-ravaged Burma convinced it is "tottering on a precipice".

Cyclone Nargis, which hit two weeks ago, has left nearly 78,000 people dead and another 56,000 are still missing.

After a week and a half in the capital Rangoon, which was virtually unscathed by the hurricane, Mr Costello said there are tens of thousands of people who have yet to receive even the most basic aid.

"It (the cyclone) is going to knock the rice belt of Burma around for years," Mr Costello said.

The ruling Burmese military junta, insisting it can manage the catastrophe alone, is ignoring international pleas to open up their doors to avert a second wave of death among desperate victims without food, water, shelter and medical care.

While Burma`s generals have accepted hundreds of tonnes of relief supplies - ranging from high-tech famine foodstuff to basic needs like fresh bottled water - they have rebuffed offers of assistance from foreign disaster management experts and teams experienced in distributing aid and helping disaster victims.

Mr Costello said World Vision had never operated in such a "narrow human space" like this before.

He said the military government simply did not have the capacity to do the job, but insisted it could.

"It`s an unnatural act to bite my tongue," he said, "but for the sake of our work, and we have reached tens of thousands of people, I will simply leave the commentary to others, except to say this is the most narrowest and unprecedented, difficult place in which we`ve ever mounted a humanitarian relief operation."

"You can`t help but look at the Chinese response (to this week`s earthquake) and see a tale of two tragedies, in terms of response."

He said there had been a slight softening by the Burmese government`s attitude, and it was hoped in the next day or two, five desperately needed World Vision workers would be given entry visas.

Mr Costello was not allowed out of Rangoon even though he carried a letter from the Prime Minister granting him unhindered access.

"Because there are security checkpoints, which are very efficient. If the efficiency in stopping aid workers and journalists ... was actually applied to getting aid it would be a very different story."

He said the United Nations World Food Programme believed up to 30 or 40 per cent of people had not yet been reached with either rice or water.

Eyewitnesses told Mr Costello there were villages of 20 people with not even a cupful of rice between them.

"So all those things are now tottering on the precipice, and that`s why it`s a race against the weather and a race against, literally, the obstacles that have been in our way to save lives."

The people were suffering, and would continue to do so for years to come, Mr Costello believed.

"They don`t expect a lot of government. Anger is really a luxury for democracies. They have to survive by seeing no evil and speaking no evil, they can`t express that. But the truth is they are suffering and they are suffering enormously.

"It`s going to take years. This is going to have a bigger impact (on Burma) than the tsunami did on Indonesia and Thailand," Mr Costello said.

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